Edward Gibbon Quotes About Manners

Quotes about: Manners

• When Julian ascended the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, the Grecian purity of taste, of manners and of religion. The emperor's prepossession was increased and justified by the discreet pride of his favourite.

  Edward Gibbon

  Pride, History, Age

  Edward Gibbon (1840). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.137

• In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Powerful, Luxury

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.3, Wordsworth Editions

• The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader.

  Edward Gibbon

  Simple, History, Interesting

  Edward Gibbon (1828). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.410

• His manners were less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations, and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than ostentation.

  Edward Gibbon

  Father, Character, Two

  Edward Gibbon, M. Guizot (François) (1853). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.224

• The complaints of contemporary writes, who deplore the increase of luxury and deprevation of manners, are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the bland and capricious passions of a multitude of individuals.

  Edward Gibbon

  Spring, Nice, Passion

  Edward Gibbon (1828). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.501

• The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of German manners. The disposal of the landed property within their district was absolutely vested in their hands, and they distributed it every year according to a new division. At the same time, they were not authorised to punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike, a private citizen.

  Edward Gibbon

  Views, Hands, Years

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.190, Wordsworth Editions

• The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty. From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Opportunity, History, Giving

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, with notes by Milman and Guizot. Ed. by W. Smith”, p.363

• This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, History, Curiosity

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, M. Guizot (François), William Smith (1872). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.197

• The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia.

  Edward Gibbon

  Pride, Greatness, Vanity

  Edward Gibbon (1875). “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.107

• If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the Syrians.

  Edward Gibbon

  Character, People, History

  Edward Gibbon, William Smith (1857). “The Student's Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.174

• The Gauls derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell.

  Edward Gibbon

  Smell, Sight, Joy

  Edward Gibbon (1789). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.245

• The difference of language, dress, and manners . . . severs and alienates the nations of the globe.

  Edward Gibbon

  Differences, Dresses, Language

  Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Crusades: A.D. 1095-1261”, p.81

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